Parking ticket hiatus: small victories can cause big upsets

$5 Parking Ticket Causes Chaos For All Pa. Meters

Towns Find Meters Not Certified

POSTED: 11:55 am EDT April 29, 2005

PITTSBURGH -- All Chuck Pascal wanted to do was challenge a $5 parking ticket. But his victory in a Butler, Pa., court has sent shock waves through the state and led some towns to suspend writing tickets.

Pascal showed that Butler was in violation of a state law that requires parking meters to be certified as accurate every three years.

Now, cities and towns are clamoring for the state's Division of Weights and Measures to certify their meters.

The division, which has to inspect everything from gasoline pumps to delicatessen scales, is overwhelmed.

Butler has stopped writing tickets until its meters are certified. So has Erie, at a cost of $2,000 a day in fines.

At least two dozen municipalities are waiting for certification.